Undeterred by critics, communities across the U.S. - including Conestoga Township, PA - pursue Community Rights to challenge laws elevating corporate claimed "rights" over community authority to make local governing decisions.

Martic and Conestoga Townships in Lancaster County, PA, move a step closer to advancing Community Rights to protect themselves from an LNG pipeline: a County Judge threw out challenges to each of the Township's efforts to place Home Rule on the ballot in May.

As Benton County, OR, residents, organic and sustainable farmers, and local food rights advocates advance their rights-based Local Food System Ordinance to the ballot, pro-GMO and business interests begin a propaganda campaign in an attempt to undermine the measure.

Athens, OH, community rights advocate asserts the City's Community Bill of Rights banning fracking is about civil rights; as such, those rights cannot be overturned by any court. [CELDF note: The county judge in the referenced Broadview Heights, OH, case ignored the Civil Rights of residents because the City never used those rights in the defense of the ordinance.]

While Seneca Resources insists it has suffered "irreparable harm" from Highland Township, PA's, Community Bill of Rights banning fracking injection wells, residents assert they have an inalienable right to protect their water, and continue to back their Supervisors to exercise that right.

As Conestoga Township, PA, residents advance community rights to protect themselves from LNG pipelines, opponents to their organizing try to undermine their Home Rule efforts. A Lancaster County Court judge ruled in favor of community rights supporters.

Envision Spokane - a community, rights-based organization in Spokane, WA - is advancing a Worker's Bill of Rights for the November 2015 ballot that would protect workers' rights to a living wage, equal pay for equal work regardless of gender or race, and other rights for workers.

In a Guest Viewpoint, Oregon resident decries the power of a Lane County Clerk to refuse to certify a Community Bill of Rights protecting local and sustainable food systems to the ballot for a vote by County residents. Such action is a violation of federal constitutional rights.

Athens, OH, resident speaks to the City's Community Bill of Rights protecting residents from fracking and injection well contamination of water, and advocates for expanding those rights to Counties in southeast Ohio that are otherwise vulnerable to the industry's harms. The state and ODNR in no way are protecting communities, so residents must.

While an industry-funded study of economic implications of a proposed pipeline in Columbia County, PA, promises jobs, CELDF points out industry bias, and recognizes much broader harms to communities' health and safety, the environment, and democratic harms when the people are deprived of their right to decide whether or not they want the pipeline.

Residents of Conestoga and Martic Townships, in Lancaster County, PA, turn to Home Rule to advance Community Bills of Rights through a vote of the people. Local private interests are challenging this democratic move.

Community Rights emerge as a compelling and powerful means to assert inalienable rights to local self-governance, clean air and water, and the right to protect communities' health, safety and welfare, as the oil and gas industry tries to force fracking and related infrastructure into communities.

The City of Broadview Heights missed an opportunity to defend the people's Community Bill of Rights banning fracking based on their rights. Instead, the City argued authority to regulate fracking under Home Rule - which has long been authority granted or taken away at the whim of the state legislature and the Courts.

Regardless of the recent County Court decision regarding Broadview Heights, OH's, Community Bill of Rights banning fracking, Athens residents and City Council members assert that, if necessary, they will enforce their Community Bill of Rights to protect residents from fracking and related activities.

While a Cuyahoga County judge overturns Broadview Heights, OH's, Community Bill of Rights banning fracking, residents continue in their class action law suit, asserting their right to local self-government.

Highland Township, PA, Supervisors and residents stand fast to defend their Community Bill of Rights banning fracking wastewater injection wells, adopted in 2013, against a lawsuit by Seneca Resources. The Township is voting to amend their bill of rights to make clearer what it covers.

As pipelines plans continue to spread, Conestoga Township, PA, residents turn to Home Rule to advance community rights in order to protect themselves from this unwanted and harmful infrastructure project.

In the wake of the Ohio Supreme Court ruling in the Munroe Falls case, communities such as Broadview Heights distinguish their rights-based fracking ban from Munroe Fall's restrictive zoning law: the former's Community Bill of Rights is based on their inalienable right to local self-governance.

Threatened with industrial wind farms, communities in New Hampshire use Community Bills of Rights to ban the harmful practices. The Town of Alexandria votes this Tuesday at Town Meeting on a second rights-based ordinance to strengthen their ban on unsustainable energy practices.

Local governments began declaring their independence from England several years before the writing of the Declaration of Independence – with communities recognizing the need to take action to drive larger change. Communities today are taking similar steps.

As growing numbers of communities advance Community Bills of Rights to protect themselves from harmful activities - such as Columbia County, OR, residents facing pipelines - efforts to quash those rights increase as well. Columbia residents file to intervene to protect their right to place a rights-based initiative on the ballot.

The state of Ohio attempts to dismiss a class action lawsuit by residents of Broadview Heights. Residents are standing together to enforce their Community Bill of Rights banning fracking, while the state argues they have no standing in their own community.

Recognizing how corporations are violating communities' rights to make local governing decisions to protect themselves, Martic Township, PA, residents - threatened with a pipeline - leverage Home Rule to advance their community rights and protect themselves and the natural environment from harm.

Highland Township, PA, residents urge their Supervisors to defend their community and fight Seneca Resources as the energy corporation files a federal lawsuit to overturn their Community Bill of Rights banning fracking injection wells. The ordinance was adopted by the township in 2013 to protect their water.

Highland Township, PA, supervisors voted last night to defend the people's Community Bill of Rights banning frack wastewater injection wells. Seneca Resources Corporation claims it has a corporate "right" to inject wastewater in the township, and does not recognize the community's right to protect their clean water.

Columbia County, OR, residents advance a Community Bill of Rights to protect themselves from proposed large-scale transportation of fossil fuels as a violation of their rights to a healthy climate and to local, community self-governance.

Some Ohioans hold out hope that the recent Munroe Falls decision leaves room for leveraging regulation to try to keep fracking out of their neighborhoods. Others insist that regardless of the decision, communities have the right to make local governing decisions to protect their own health, safety, and welfare - including banning fracking as a violation of rights.

In a letter-to-the-editor, Portage County resident decries the Ohio Supreme Court's decision in the Munroe Falls case, and invites residents to learn what they can do about it through Community Rights.

The right to local, community self-government cannot be stripped away by any branch of government, because it is an inalienable right of the people to protect their health, safety, and welfare - regardless of the recent Ohio Supreme Court ruling in the Munroe Falls case.

In backlash against a proposed Community Bill of Rights initiative banning fracking in Kent, OH, the city's law director moves to block such initiatives if considered to be in conflict with state or federal law - in effect stripping residents of their right to self-government.

While corporations are granted growing numbers of "rights" by the courts, local communities are asserting community rights to local self-government, and to clean air, soil, and water - and banning corporate activities that violate those rights. Listen to Rick Staggenborg's interview with CELDF's Kai Huschke.

Ohio residents adopting Community Bills of Rights banning fracking make a distinction from the Munroe Falls case: Their initiatives are based on their civil right to make local governing decisions - including whether or not fracking will occur - rather than accepting fracking and trying to regulate it better.

Athens, OH, residents assert that the Munroe Falls decision by the Ohio Supreme Court overturning the City's regulation of fracking does not impact Athens' Community Bill of Rights banning fracking. The latter is a law based on rights - not regulating.

Communities speak out against the Ohio Supreme Court decision in the Munroe Falls case - including Broadview Heights and Gates Mills. Residents assert those who are directly impacted by fracking must be the ones to decide whether or not it is allowed in their communities.

Athens County, OH, resident sees rights to clean air, soil, and water - and the rights of future generations - at stake as communities of Southeast Ohio are threatened with the transportation and injection of fracking wastewater.

Barrington, NH, residents bring a Community Bill of Rights initiative to direct democracy at Town Meeting in March. The Barrington community is threatened by water, gravel, and mineral extraction, and is using Community Rights to protect themselves and local ecosystems.

Lancaster County, PA, residents make clear their stand to protect their communities from a pipeline project, refusing to be intimidated by criminal charges and vowing to continue thwarting the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline.

Wood County, OH, resident Lisa Kochheiser calls out the corporate siting of pipelines as creating sacrifice zones, and urges county residents to use a Community Bill of Rights to protect themselves from harms posed by pipelines.

Douglas and Coos Counties in Oregon, facing LNG pipelines, are using Community Rights to protect themselves. Both counties are looking at Community Bill of Rights to legally recognize their right to local self-governance, and ban the pipelines.

The Washington State Appellate Court ruled in favor of a Community Rights initiative that had been kept off the ballot by local corporate and government interests, finding that the right of initiative by the people is protected.

As the Supreme Court forces decisions on communities that benefit corporations and harm democracy, communities are working at the grassroots to adopt Community Bills of Rights that codify people's rights to local self-governance and sustainable communities - banning those corporate activities that violate those rights.

While ALEC and other pro-corporate entities attempt to decrease worker rights,CELDF partners in Colorado and Spokane, WA, begin working on Community Bills of Rights to protect workers' rights, building on the "floor" of rights established at the state and federal levels.

While Conestoga & Martic Township residents urge their local electeds to adopt Community Bills of Rights banning pipelines, they take action through peaceful civil disobedience to stop pipeline test drilling taking place in their community.

CELDF partner communities in Lancaster County, PA, declare a complete rejection of the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project, and site protecting the land and rural culture as reasons behind their direct action to stop the project from cutting through their Townships.

Lancaster County, PA, residents use peaceful civil disobedience to stop drilling at a proposed pipeline site. Residents are acting to protect their community and local ecosystem's rights to clean air, water, and soil.

Coos County, OR, residents recognize that only they have the inalienable right to make the decisions about those things impacting their community. They are gathering signatures to place a Community Bill of Rights on the May ballot that secures that right, and bans LNG pipelines.

As an entrenched legal doctrine stripping communities of their rights to local self-governance becomes more evident to growing numbers of communities, CELDF is partnering with many of those communities to challenge and change that doctrine.

Seneca Resources attempts to move forward with siting a fracking wasterwater injection well in Highland Township, PA. To do so would violate the Township's Community Bill of Rights banning injection wells, and residents insist on their right to make governing decisions within their community.

Grant Township, PA, Supervisors, residents, and the Little Mahoning Watershed stand behind their Community Bill of Rights banning fracking injection wells and protecting local ecosystems, determined that unjust laws must be challenged and changed.

As fracking, its wastewater, and fracking infrastructure grow, communities are adopting Community Bills of Rights to protect themselves - and now local ecosystems are using this rights-based structure to protect themselves as well.

More than a dozen Athens residents make clear that their Community Bill of Rights banning fracking and related activities is about the people of Athens uniting to assert their right to local self-governance in protecting their own health, safety, and welfare against corporate harms.

Mason, NH, residents gather to oppose a gas pipeline threatening their community, and learn about CELDF-drafted Community Bills of Rights to stop harmful corporate activities as a violation of Community Rights.

Should corporate claimed "rights" to inject frack wastewater supersede the rights of a community to clean water? Residents of Grant Township, PA, insist community rights to clean water, and the right of the Little Mahoning Watershed to flourish, are elevated over any corporate privileges to cause harm.

Conestoga Township, PA, resident urges the use of their proposed Community Bill of Rights banning pipelines to change our structure of law, such that community rights to local self-governance and to protect themselves are elevated above corporate claimed "rights."

While some claim federal law trumps any right to local self-governance, residents of Coos and Douglas Counties, OR - facing harmful pipelines - assert that the right of the people to local self-governance is the highest law. They are moving Community Bills of Rights initiatives to the ballot to codify that right.

Coos County, OR, residents facing a LNG pipeline take a stand to assert their authority to make self-governing decisions about what happens within their county. Residents are advancing a Community Bill of Rights to secure their rights and ban unsustainable energy projects.

With a judge ruling that Broadview Heights, OH, residents could not intervene in a lawsuit regarding their Community Bill of Rights banning fracking because they had no interest in the case, residents file a class action lawsuit against the state and two energy corporations to enforce their right to protect their community and make local self-governing decisions.

Broadview Heights, OH, residents determine to defend their right to local self-governance, and to protect themselves from fracking, through a class action lawsuit against the state of Ohio and two oil and gas corporations.

Despite 200 Conestoga Township, PA, residents passionately urging their Supervisors to adopt their Community Bill of Rights banning an LNG pipeline as a violation of community rights, Supervisors folded, representing corporate interests over the health, safety, and welfare of their constituents.

Grant Township, PA, residents see their community rights to protect their health and safety, and the rights of the Little Mahoning Watershed to exist and flourish, as inseparable - and as superseding corporate claimed "rights."

Conestoga Township, PA, residents urge their Board of Supervisors to adopt their Community Bill of Rights Ordinance banning pipelines as a violation of their rights to clean air, water, and local self-governance.

In a letter-to-the-editor, a Lancaster County, PA, resident calls out the structure of law and governance we live under that forces unsustainable and harmful LNG pipelines into communities, calling for Township Supervisors within the County to adopt Community Bills of Rights to protect residents and local ecosystems.

Regardless of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources partnering with oil and gas corporations to use the Ohio courts against communities, residents continue to assert their Community Rights to local self-governance and clean air and water through local bills of rights banning fracking.

Community efforts to stop fracking reveal that we have been divested of our human, civil and political rights to clean air, water, and local self-governance. Meanwhile corporations continue to clothe themselves in human civil and political rights and protections - with federal and state government as their tailors.

In a letter-to-the-editor, Merrily Mazza of the Colorado Community Rights Network calls out that there is no remedy to protect our own health, safety, and welfare, under our existing structure of law and governance. Statewide Community Rights Networks are working to change that.

Mendocino County, CA, residents voting to use Community Rights to ban fracking by an overwhelming majority in the November election, welcome the broader conversation about the recognition of community rights within the county.

Mendocino County, CA, residents using Community Rights to ban fracking by an overwhelming majority in the November election, welcome the broader conversation about the recognition of community rights within the county.

Blogger Magix reveals the false claims of energy corporations in favor of an LNG pipeline cutting through Coos County, OR, and what residents can expect from corporate opponents of the community's Coos County Right to Sustainable Energy Future Ordinance, headed for the ballot next May.

Mendocino County, CA's, Community Bill of Rights banning fracking protects residents and local ecosystems, and challenges existing law that denies communities the right to local decision-making, the right to clean air and water, and the right to create sustainable communities.

On the grounds that all power is inherent in the people, residents of Coos County, OR, facing an LNG pipeline harmful to their communities and local ecosystems, have filed a Community Rights initiative banning unsustainable infrastructure for the May 2015 ballot.

Athens, OH, residents ban fracking and the transportation of frack waste within the City through a Community Bill of Rights. The initiative was supported by 78% of voters, and secures the community's rights to a healthy environment and to local self-governance.

Athens, OH, and Mendocino County, CA, adopt Community Bills of Rights banning fracking in a growing movement to secure residents' inalienable rights to clean air, water, and local self-governance - and banning fracking as a violation of those rights.

Last night, residents of Athens, OH, overwhelmingly asserted their rights to clean air, water, and to local self-governance, banning fracking and frack wastewater injection wells through the adoption of a Community Bill of Rights.

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